Feds decide against dredged sand on NC island

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  The National Park Service is backing away from its proposal to use dredged sand to fight erosion on North Carolina's Shackleford Banks.

The superintendent of Cape Lookout National Seashore says in a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers that he no longer was requesting to put dredged sand on Shackleford Banks. The Park Service manages Shackleford Banks, which is home to about 100 wild horses but no humans, as a wilderness area although Congress hasn't given it that designation.

Seashore Superintendent Pat Kenney says coastal scientists advised him that the plan wouldn't limit erosion on the island's western tip.

Environmentalist Orrin Pilkey says the decision is the right one because the erosion is a natural occurrence.